This piece in Slate by William Saletan misses the point. After the usual mandatory asides about Islamophobia, he never even gets to the real issue: why is a call to prayer being allowed in public? Are there Christian calls to prayer? No, just bells that sometimes play the hour, sometimes play tunes, sometimes mark services. Do people think of ordinary Church bells as calls to come to Church? I don’t. I’ve been around Church bells for decades and they sometimes play at the end of services, sometimes play when there’s a wedding, etc. In the famous John Donne poem, the bell tolls the age of the person who died so if you hear 30 bongs you know a 30 year old died (and you may then think of sending to know for whom the bell tolls). Are there Jewish calls to prayer? Never heard one. Don’t know if they exist in some corner of the Jewish world but no, they generally don’t exist. Putting out a public call to prayer isn’t an accommodation to Muslim worshippers but is a way of establishing a religion that hasn’t been done for other religions.
http://www.slate.com/…/duke_reverses_decision_on_muslim_cal…
jomi: playing with perception 